3G NATURAL INHERITANCE. [chap. 



proportions of those who had incomes in each and every 

 other degree, up to the huge annual receipts of a few 

 great speculators, manufacturers, and landed proprietors. 

 So in respect to the distribution of any human quality 

 or faculty, a knowledge of mere averages tells but little ; 

 we want to learn how the quality is distributed among 

 the various members of the Fraternity or of the Popula- 

 tion, and to express what we know in so compact a 

 form that it can be easily grasped and dealt with. 

 A parade of great accuracy, is foolish, because precision 

 is unattainable in biological and social statistics ; their 

 results being never strictly constant. Over-minuteness 

 is mischievous, because it overwhelms the mind with 

 more details than can be compressed into a single 

 view. We require no more than a fairly just and 

 comprehensive method of expressing the way in which 

 each measurable quality is distributed among the 

 members of any group, whether the group consists 

 of brothers or of members of any particular social, 

 local, or other body of persons, or whether it is co- 

 extensive with an entire nation or race. 



A knowledge of the distribution of any quality en- 

 ables us to ascertain the Rank that each man holds 

 among his fellows, in respect to that quality. This is 

 a valuable piece of knowledge in this struggling and 

 competitive world, where success is to the foremost, and 

 failure to the hindmost, irrespective of absolute efficiency. 

 A blurred vision would be above all price to an in- 

 dividual man in a nation of blind men, though it would 

 hardly enable him to earn his bread elsewhere. When 



